The cargo ship stranded on a reef off New Zealand was fully evacuated in heavy weather after sending out a mayday alarm Tuesday as it continued to leak heavy fuel oil into the sea, DPA reported.
Maritime New Zealand said the 25-man mainly Filipino crew had been lifted off the 47,000 ton Rena, which has been aground on the reef off the east coast port city Tauranga since last week as a precautionary measure.
The agency said the loaded container ship was still intact and an aerial survey showed "no obvious sign of deformation" but it was moving around in 3-4-metre sea swells and winds gusting to 46 kilometres an hour.
It said an estimated 130-350 tons of oil had now leaked from the vessel and a "significant" amount was still leaking into the ocean.
Earlier, many of the crew had been evacuated but the captain and salvage workers had remained on board. But all have now left the ship.
The 236-metre ship had suffered more damage leading to additional flooding in the forward holds, but that would help to settle it on the reef, a statement said.
No containers have come off the vessel, which shifted from an 11 degree list to 3-6 degrees overnight. "With the improved list the containers have become more stable, as they are now more upright than before," the statement said.
Salvage teams, who have been trying to transfer the 1,700 tons of heavy fuel oil on the ship before it spills to create a major environmental disaster, were assessing the situation, but it was inevitable that more oil would land on beaches.
The agency warned that oil would wash up on the shore from the suburb of Mount Maunganui, one of the country's most popular resort beaches, to Maketu, 30 kilometres to the south.
Oil was also expected to enter the port of Tauranga, which handles more cargo than any other port in the country.
The agency said about 100 members of a clean-up response team had started mopping up oil from Mount Maunganui beach.
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